Good Night, And Good Luck Mr. Rumsfeld

Here is wonderful take by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on a speech Sec. of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld made earlier this week in front of the American Legion in Salt Lake City. In case you missed the speech, here is a slate.com analysis of the speech.

Since that is a bit slanted, here are a couple of links:

Here is the AP story on the speech.

Here is the official transcript of the speech.

Rumsfeld reminds me of a tired old man who has given up and only parades himself because he has to parade himself. Clearly his speech writer overstepped the boundaries of decent debate and discourse, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Look at the past five years, debate in this country is non-existent. It is just a bunch of extremes shouting over the uninformed or lazy masses in the middle.

Good night, and good luck, indeed…

Keith Olbermann from MSNBC

Fitzgerald On The Radio

Not sure what everyone’s stance on Robert’s run for the US Senate is, but I thought I’d throw out a heads up for anyone interested. Minnesota Public Radio is holding a senatorial debate at the MN State Fair this Friday, September 1, at 11 a.m., with three of the candidates. This debate includes Independence Party candidate, and UMM alum, Robert Fitzgerald.

I think it will be interesting to hear how he does in the debate against Republican Mark Kennedy and Democrat Amy Klobuchar. I am not endorsing him, but it isn’t every day you get to hear someone you know debate the issues on the same stage with two money-grubbing, party-line fools.

You can tune your radio into MPR for its Midday broadcast or listen via the Web.

It is archived here.

Flaming Conversion

Last night my wife and I went to the Minnesota State Fair.  We outlasted the downpour in the shelter of the building across from the Horse building.  While we waited for the rain to subside, we even got to enjoy Hotdish-on-a-stick!

We ran into Robert Fitzgerald also.  He is in the IP booth right next to the Cheese Curds on Dan Patch Ave.  He is looking pretty scrawny nowadays.  Politics must have its vampyric embrace on him.  Hopefully he will fatten up once it’s all over.

We headed to the show around 7pm and found out that they cancelled Magic Numbers and that Sonic Youth would start at 8:20pm followed by Flaming Lips.

I am not a fan of any of these bands.  I wasn’t familiar with the music and I didn’t want to stand for three hours in the rain.

The show was freakin’ awesome.  I enjoyed Sonic Youth rocking out and Flaming Lips interrupted their set to let Magic Numbers play a coupel of songs…since they REALLY wanted to play for us.

I am an official convert for all three bands now.

I am secretly a fan of live music so I was pre-disposed to have a good time, but the repport established by the musicians last night - in spite of the deluge - was magical and I am very glad I gutted it out. 

I have a couple of questions though:

Has anyone else attended a show reluctantly only to be converted to an actual a fan by a stellar live performance? 

What does Flaming Lips mean?  Does it mean they sing so awesome their lips are on fire??  Or does it mean they dated a girl with a scorching case of Gonorrhea?

Is it possible to post too much YouTube stuff?

I admit it, today wasn’t the most productive day at work, but look at what I found…

Pink Floyd at Abbey Road - 1971

Make sure to watch Part 2 and the other Floyd videos, too.

Some old Super 8 Jaws rip-off from 1978

An interesting short filmed with a Super 8

Hey, Jesus…I’m gonna dip my balls in it!

Hey, Erik. . .

…I’ll just pour some gas on this fire. Sound good?

Why circumcise?

I expect a complete debate at the next gathering.

Looking Really Good Today, Buddy. Looking Real Good.

Proving that there is a Web site for just about everything in this world. I present to you:

Better Off Dead Camaro

Yep, some dude from Florida tracked down Lane’s Chen-Ree-beating 1967 Chevrolet Camaro and restored it (after Monique restored it, of course). This strikes me as both completely stupid and completely cool at the same time. Anyone else feel that Better Off Dead could be the best ’80s comedy of all time?

Gee, I’m real sorry your mom blew up, Ricky.

Illustration Of Media’s Problems

I was once a staunch supporter of Israel and her right to defend herself in a hostile environment. I consider myself pretty well informed on the history of Israel and Arab diplomacy and lack of diplomacy. From “The White Paper” of 1917 to the current situation with Lebanon, I’ve always given Israel the benefit of the doubt. I am not so sure anymore. I am willing to admit that I may have been too blind in my support of Israel’s policies and am starting to turn a bit.

While I still believe Israel has to defend itself in a sea of sharks, it must be willing to consider a stand down so cooler heads can prevail in the current crisis. With the way Iran is aligning with Lebanon and now with the added threat of getting Syria involved, the situation could spiral out of control. It is in the United State’s interests to cool off Israel. But the current administration doesn’t have a foot to stand on because of our “cowboy” foreign policy. How can we tell Israel not to defend itself against what it deems a terrorist organization when we are doing the same in Afghanistan and Iraq?

This is the inherent problem with our current foreign policy. While we think we are making things safer for our interests, we are ultimately opening ourselves up to more hatred in the region. This is not the time for cowboys. This is a time for diplomats. The problem is, a cowboy is in office for another two years.

I fear we are going to be recovering from the past six years for generations.

Anyway, here is a clip of British MP George Galloway who recently appeared on Sky News. To me, it is a perfect illustration of what is wrong with today’s media coverage of complicated events. The UK’s Sky News is owned by News Corp, which owns Fox News. So you can imagine where it falls on the political spectrum. Galloway brilliantly highlights the bias and ignorance of the reporter because he is given the chance to speak — something that is rarely afforded to people on American cable news shows. It is a bit amusing and sad at the same time.

British MP George Galloway on Sky News

Joseph Lieberman is a Jerk

Speaking to a crowd of Connecticans in Hartford he framed his losing bid against Ned Lamont as Lamont’s old way of politics of division against his new way (which as far as I can tell is kissing Bush’s face and Hannity’s ass). I don’t understand how incumbents think they can get away with the argument for change. It’s like Mark Kennedy here in Minnesota saying he represents change… it’s screwed up. I’d be OK with every single incumbent out of elected office this time around–and taking the 66 lobbyists per elected official with them.

Writing about politics is sometimes depressing… I’m not looking forward to a democrat vs. (quasi) democrat fight coming in Connecticut, but sometimes good change is painful. Good ‘ole Joe-Mentum requested that everybody visit his website (which was not hacked, but exceeded it’s bandwidth (oh Joe, lies are not a new way of doing things)) and give him our ideas on how he can “change” things. I’m going to take him up on that and ask him to drop the hell out of the race and campaign for Ned and please, please help America get out of this nose-dive.

Not a good day

I just got word that one of my friends from my days of covering ATV racing may never walk again. He was involved in a wreck at the start of the second moto at the Unadilla ATV Motocross national. The crash fractured vertebrae and damaged his spinal cord in the T10 to T12 region. He was in surgery for six hours where the doctors tried to repair the damage and just got out of it this morning. That is when the news was relayed to me that he may never get to walk again.

This is one of those times I want to believe that the one-percent chance he is given to walk again will come true.

I realize that many may say he was taking an unnecessary risk by racing motocross professionally — and those who say that may be right. I raced and was severely injured. But I don’t know how to reconcile the joy I felt while racing to the inherent risks the sport forces upon the body. People have died racing motocross, people get injured, but still thousands of people do it each day.

Why? It used to be a lot easier for me to answer that question before I broke my leg. Now with Jeremiah’s injury, it just got even harder. Still, it is a sport I will watch and follow for the rest of my life. And I guess I will just have to accept that with motocross there will be incidents like these.

Jeremiah Jones was a professional ATV racer, former national champ and one of the fastest guys I’ve ever had a chance to watch race. He is also one of the nicest people I know. I am completely heartbroken for his wife and son. I can’t imagine what his family must be feeling. Jeremiah, Brenda, Jim, Jamie and Jeremiah Jr., I can only offer my condolences and support. It will be a struggle, but hopefully the pain will ease over time and life will slowly get better.

I don’t know.

I just had to write something.

8/4/06 Update: He is going to be moved to a rehab center in Atlanta and the medical flight is really expensive. If you want to donate to help pay some of the costs, click here where you can donate money or order a bracelet. I believe the donations are tax deductible. He is also reported to be able to feel pressure when applied below the waist, but still cannot move anything.